


A Year in The Life Of Peter Parker and Michelle Jones

by The_Heroes_Time_Forgot



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-03
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2019-08-17 03:28:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 16,902
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16508516
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Heroes_Time_Forgot/pseuds/The_Heroes_Time_Forgot
Summary: A years worth of interactions between MJ and Peter.Other characters are also around sometimes.





	1. New Year. Same Old City.

_January_  
_Peter_

Peter’s year started off with a bang.

Literally.

An explosion had gone off a few blocks away just after midnight. He had to rush out, apologizing to May and Ned as he hurriedly put on his suit.

“Can’t you just let Iron Man take care of it? It’s New Years, Peter.” May tried to reason with him, but he shook his head.

“Mister Stark is out of the country right now, Italy I think, with Miss Potts. And I don’t know if the other Avengers will come out for a small explosion in Queens.” He pulled on his mask, calibrating his eye lenses and web shooters before he left, “So its up to your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man to investigate.”

May sighed, “Alright. Be careful, hon. We’ll stay up and wait for you.”

Ned waved to his friend, “Later, dude. Go kick some ass.”

Peter smiled, giving a two finger salute before running into his room and jumping out the window, firing a web at the roof of his building and swinging in the direction of the cloud of smoke.

“Okay, Karen. What’s going on?”

_”Armed gunmen are attempting to hijack an armoured truck. Contents of the vehicle are unknown. Explosion was caused by them blowing the doors off the back.”_

“Anyone hurt?”

_”No injuries reported. Though I advise you to end their assault soon, otherwise that may change.”_

“On it. Which way?”

_”Two blocks south of your current position and moving away fast.”_

Peter shot a web at a corner, using it to propel himself around it so he could go in the right direction.

Not even a minute later he’d caught up to the truck, swinging above them as he counted the assailants, “Three gunmen plus a driver. Two in the cab, two in the back. I’m going in. Karen, try and figure out what’s in that truck.”

_”On it.”_

Peter swing as high as he could on his last web before diving forward towards the truck. He shot two webs at either side, using them to slingshot himself into the back of the truck. 

He took both men by surprise, “Hey guys. What’s up? You guys volunteered to give the regular driver the night off?”

The two gunmen’s shock faded quickly, and one lunged at him. He jumped and stuck to the ceiling of the truck. The man crashed into his buddy, “Hmmm. Y’know this doesn’t really seem like the best place to be doing this, here-“ Peter kicked one of the guys out of the back of the truck, quickly flipping out the door and onto the roof to web the guy to the side of a building, “Stick around! The police will come get you soon!”

The second guy in the back of the truck aimed above himself at Peter, firing wildly and without any concern for public safety.

Peter scoffed, “Guns? On New Years Eve? In public?” He webbed the gun, pulling it out of the guy’s hand and webbing it to the roof of the truck, “That, my friend, is a big no-no.”

The man pulled a handgun from his waistband, pointing it at Peter and firing again. Peter rolled out of the way, sticking himself so he was hanging off the side of the truck, “Hey! What’d I just say?”

He took the gun out of the guy’s hand, giving it the same treatment as his other one before sticking a web to the guy. He shot the other end to a street lamp as they passed it, and the guy was yanked from the back of the truck, his feet dangling as he struggled against his binds.

“Hang arou- wait, no. That’s too much like ‘stick around’... uh, thanks for hanging ou- oh... we’re too far. He can’t hear me.” Peter shook his head, crawling towards the cab of the truck, “Man. I gotta have these things prepared.”

_”I liked your jokes, Peter.”_

“Thanks, Karen. At least you can always hear me.”

The gunman in the cab leaned out of the window, brandishing a only a handgun, which was next to useless against Peter’s reflexes, “Guys, c’mon. Let’s talk about this.” He shot a web, sticking the guy’s hand and gun to the side mirror of the truck, “Good talk.”

Vaulting over to the other side of the truck, Peter used his momentum to kick through the drivers side window, landing his feet on the driver and send both he and his gunman out the passenger side door. He followed through, webbing both to the side of the closest building before landing in front of the truck.

He grabbed onto the front of the vehicle, digging his feet into the pavement as he brought it to a screeching halt.

“Yeah, Spider-Man!”

“You go, Spidey!”

Cheers came from all around as onlookers watched him. He had to admit, that felt pretty good.

He smiled and waved, flashing peace signs and even striking a pose or two. 

“Hey! Spider-Man!” A voice called out above all the rest. It made him falter a bit. He turned and it was MJ, standing there in her usual style of outfit and her hair up in a bun.

 _’Okay, Peter. Stay cool. Just don’t let her figure out that you’re Spider-Man, and this should all be fine.’_ He thought to himself, _‘Piece a cake.’_

“Hey MJaaaaaaahhhhmm... M-M-M I’m- I’m Spider-Man...” He stuttered, catching himself before he gave himself away immediately. He was mentally kicking himself for ever trying to talk to someone he knew while in the suit, especially MJ.

MJ raised an eyebrow, “Uh, yeah. You are. That’s why I called you ‘Spider-Man’.”

“Yep...” Peter tried to no sound as awkward as he felt, which was so much easier said than done.

MJ shook her head, refocusing, “Oookay. Weird interaction aside, I wanted to ask you a few things about the recent spike in enhanced criminals roaming the streets of New York.” She informed him, holding a pen and notepad that he could’ve sworn she hadn’t had with her a second earlier.

“Uh...”

“Or what about the fact that you’ve been hypocritical of your stand on the Sokovia Accords, choosing to keep your identity a secret and continue vigilantism, despite aiding Tony Stark in his stance in favour of said Accords?”

“I- I didn’t-...”

MJ lowered her notepad, “How do you expect the citizens of this fair city to have faith in those who save them when they don’t even know who the person saving them is?”

Peter pointed behind him at the armoured vehicle, “I just... just stopped a... a robbery. Big armoured car full of... uh”

 _”Weapons Grade Plutonium.”_ Karen helped him out, and he was oh so grateful for that.

“Weapons Grade Plutonium... You don’t have any questions about that?”

MJ looked past him at the truck, then shook her head and looked at him again, “No. that’s almost an everyday occurrence at this point.”

Peter scoffed, “That’s just New York.”

MJ scribbled something down on her notepad, “Now that, is something we can agree on.”

She ripped the sheet out of her pad, handing it to him, “Here. When your ready to give a proper statement on the questions I asked, and most likely some others, you can reach me at this number.”

Peter took the sheet, seeing a number that he didn’t recognize written on it, along with her writers alias, “Watson”, underlined above it.

“Uh, are you sure that you should be giving me this? What are you, like 16? You’re the one who said that thing about not knowing your heroes... or something like that?”

MJ rolled her eyes, “I’ll take my chances. Be seeing you, Spider-Man.” Then she turned around and walked off, into the building that the armoured car had stopped in front of.

Peter looked at the number again, then fired a web up at the roof of a building, swinging away to try and get home before Ned and May fell asleep.


	2. Some Context Required

_January_  
_MJ_

As Michelle walked back into her building, leaving Spider-Man with the number for her burner phone, she dialed Peter’s number.

 _’He’s gonna want to hear about this.’_ She thought as she raised the phone to her ear.

Two rings went by. Then he answered.

 _”Hey, MJ. What’s up?”_ Peter’s voice came through the phone, and Michelle felt a weird warm feeling in her chest. She quickly tried to bury it. To squish it down for the time being because she was not about to let her fawning over him from a distance get in the way of what could be a great story.

“Hey, Dweeb. Listen, I need you to meet me at the library tomorrow at noon.”

Peter didn’t answer for a few moments, “Peter? Hello?” She looked at her phone. She hadn’t dropped the call, nor had he hung up, “Peter? You still there?”

 _”Yeah, I’m still here. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.”_ Uh-oh. He was rambling. She’d made him nervous. How the hell did she manage that?, _“um, quick question... what is the purpose of this... outing?”_

Michelle’s brow furrowed, “Its a library, Peter. What do you think it is?”

_”Oh... yeah. Yeah, you’re right.”_

She walked back into her apartment, waving to her parents as she passed them and went to the fridge, “As always, Peter.” She pulled a soda out of the fridge door, popping the top off, “Now, dumb questions aside, can you meet me there? Or should we try and go later?” She asked, taking a swig from her drink.

_”No, no, it’s fine. It’s great. I can be there at noon.”_

Michelle nodded, going to take another drink, “Good, now as for what we’re meeting about-“

 _”Areyouaskingmeout?”_ Peter interrupted her, speaking too fast for most normal people to understand him. But Michelle certainly did.

To say that the question took her by surprise would be an understatement. She choked on her drink, spitting it into the sink and coughing like she was trying to cough up a lung.

“Michelle? You okay, sweetie?” Her mother’s voice sounded from behind her, concerned.

Michelle lifted a thumbs up in her Mom’s direction, “All good, mom. Just went down wrong.”

 _”MJ? MJ, What happened? Are you alright?”_ Peter’s voice still came from the phone, sounding just as concerned as her mother had.

“Yeah... yeah, Peter. I’m fine. Just choked on a drink.” She took a shaky breath, “No, I’m not...” she looked over at her parents, not really wanting them to listen in on her conversation, “... I’m not doing that. I just need your help, okay?”

 _”Oh... okay.”_ He sounded almost disappointed. Or was she hearing things?, _”Well, I’ve gotta get back to New Years with Ned and May before they eat all the Chinese food and I’m left with the fortune cookies.”_

“Yeah. Yeah, me too. I’ll, uh... I’ll see you tomorrow... Loser.” She really needed to get a better handle on this infatuation thing. Otherwise she was going to slip up, and then everything was gonna go to hell.

 _”Yeah... Bye, MJ. See ya tomorrow.”_ He responded, then the line went dead with a click.

Michelle held herself back from throwing her phone across the kitchen, choosing instead to grip it tightly in her hand and hope that she didn’t break it.

_’How the hell did I not see what it sounded like? What I was describing was a date... damn subconscious desires...’_

She quickly excused herself from the rest of her parents New Years party, wanting to go to bed and sleep for a while before she had to get up and go see Peter. And also wanting to wallow over the phone call in private, undisturbed by her parents asking if she was alright.

As she flopped down on her bed, sleep began to overtake her almost instantly, the familiar feeling of peace letting her mind go blank to forget Peter Parker for the time bei-

 _’He still doesn’t know why we’re meeting at the library...’_ Her almost-sleep was interrupted by the thought, and she squeezed her eyes tightly, _’He’s gonna think it’s a date still... shit.’_


	3. Confession in Confidence

_February_  
_MJ_

One month, eleven days, nine hours, thirty six minutes, thirteen seconds.

In that amount of time, since Michelle met Spider-Man on that street and told him to call her for an interview, she’d seen him a total of five times.

In person that is. In general she’d seen him on the news everyday, whether it was saving kittens from trees, stopping muggers, the occasion super villain. You name it, he was probably on TV for it.

They’d been meeting on the roof of her building every Sunday for a few hours, provided that he didn’t have to up and go crime-fighting, and she was actually starting to run out of things to ask him. 

Now she was seated up there again, flipping through her notepad and trying to find at the very least one question that she hadn’t asked him yet.

She found only one. On the very last of the used pages:

_‘Peter Parker?’_

She sighed. That boy was going to be the death of her. She just knew it. 

Before she could think of anything else to write down and ask, she head the familiar _*thwip*_ sound as Spider-Man landed by her in a crouch.

“Morning, Ms. Watson. Always nice to see you.”

Michelle nodded to him, “Likewise, Spidey. How’s life?”

“Right to the questions already, but of a personal variety. I like it.” She could tell he was probably smiling behind the mask, “Life is as follows: Wake up, leave my apartment, fight crime, eat lunch, fight some more crime, eat dinner, fight even more crime, go home, go to bed.”

Michelle raised a brow, “No breakfast?”

Spider-Man waved it off, “Nah. Don’t need it. Well, actually I probably do but...” He shrugged.

Michelle went to write that down. It may have been minor, but at least she could say she’d gotten something from today’s meeting, if nothing else.

Before her pen could hit the paper, her eyes locked onto the name again, and they wouldn’t leave it. It was like the letters were boring into her soul, and mocking her at the same time.

She sighed, and Spider-Man’s head raised at the sound, “You okay?”

“Hm? Oh, yeah. I’m fine, it’s just...” What was she supposed to say? That she was crushing on a boy and it made her both infuriated and nauseatingly happy?, “...I’m just fine.”

Spider-Man shrugged, looking up at passing birds and a plane. Michelle gave herself a mental pat on the back. She didn’t have to go spilling her life story to someone whose name she didn’t even know. No, she was quite content with keeping this all to herse-

“It’s just that...”

Well shit. Here we go.

Michelle sighed again, “Okay, look. You’ve been oh so kind as to share whatever parts of your life you can with me for my articles for the school paper. And I thank you for that. I think I just need to tell someone about this, or I’m gonna go crazy. Or explode. Or both.”

Spider-Man nodded, “Alright then. Lay it on me. Let’s hear what’s got ya troubled.”

“It’s... it’s this guy.”

“Oooooh. Juicy gossip.” He snickered, and she glared at him. He put his hands up in surrender, “Sorry. Sorry. Carry on.”

“Well... this guy. I keep telling myself that it’s not what people say it is. It’s not a crush, it’s just some weird, interest in another human being and the things that make them who they are.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s called a crush, Watson.”

Michelle rolled her eyes, getting up and moving to leave the roof, “Nevermind. I’ll figure it out in my own.”

Spider-Man stopped her, “Wait, wait wait wait. Maybe I can help. Do you know where he lives? I could... I dunno, deliver a Valentine’s Day Card to him from you?”

That made Michelle hesitate. Peter loved Spider-Man. He’d jumped at the chance to help her come up with questions for him. So if she had the opportunity to get Spider-Man to hand-deliver a Valentine’s Day card to him, she needed to take it. 

She turned and looked at Spider-Man, “Alright. I’ve already got one downstairs in my apartment. I’ll be right back.”

Spider-Man gave her a thumbs up, “Sounds good. I’ll be right here waiting.”

Michelle nodded and walked through the door to the stairs, the bolted down to her apartment once she was sure she couldn’t be seen by Spider-Man anymore. She rushed into her room, grabbing the envelope that she’d already had ready and sealed. Which was not at all weird, just like she definitely wasn’t absolutely ecstatic from the thought that Spider-Man was going to deliver it for her.

That would be preposterous.

She quickly wrote _’Peter’_ in her best cursive on the envelope before dashing back to the stairs and up to the roof, making sure to slow down and walk calmly back out onto the roof so she didn’t seem weird. 

Cause she wasn’t, obviously.

She handed the envelope to Spider-Man, who turned it over and looked at the name. The lenses of his mask widened momentarily, then he looked at her.

“Uh... Does, um...Does this ‘Peter’ have a last name?” He asked, his usual tone seemed to falter, which struck Michelle as a bit strange. She shook off the weird feeling.

“Yeah, ‘Parker’. Peter Parker. Why? Should I have put his last name on there too?”

“Uh, no. No, it’s fine. It’s great like it is.”

Michelle nodded, telling Spider-Man Peter’s address and when he’d probably be home.

“I think he’s at our friend Ned’s place right now, so if you just want to, like web it to the outside of his window, that’d be fine. He should see it... probably. He is kinda oblivious.”

“Hey!” Spider-Man yelped at her comment, and she raised a brow at him. He quickly recovered, “Uh... what I meant is, just because someone doesn’t see the signs, doesn’t make them oblivious. They might just be focusing on something else. Something that might have them just as invested as you.”

Michelle crossed her arms, rolling her eyes, “That’s very poetic, Spidey. Now can you go, before my anxiety gets the better of me and I take that envelope back?”

“Right. Got it.” He stood on the edge of the roof, his back towards the drop, “Be seeing you, Watson.”

“See you later, Spider-Man.”

Then he tipped backwards off the roof, falling a bit before firing a web to a building and swinging in the direction of Peter’s apartment building.

 _‘Welp... no turning back now...’_ Michelle thought as she watched the superhero disappear between the buildings.


	4. Overthinking + Advice From Ned

_February_  
_Peter_

_Okay... okay... okay... okay... okay... okay... okay...’_ Peter’s brain had kinda gotten stuck in a loop. He’d fried it trying to figure out if MJ was actually crushing on him, or if she knew that he was Spider-Man and was screwing with him. 

He’d been doing that for three days.

Any attempts by May or Ned to bring him back to reality were unsuccessful. Even Karen couldn’t get him to snap out of it.

It started when he got home and “found” a Valentine’s Day card from MJ webbed to his window. He’d sent a photo of it to her before quickly taking it down before May saw it. 

Then he got no response. He got no confirmation text. No confession. Nothing. She didn’t even mention it at school the next day.

So, needless to say, Peter was really confused.

“Dude. You are so spaced out right now. How are you still beating me?” Ned asked beside him, gritting his teeth at the end of his sentence while he desperately tried to defend his character against Peter’s. A fruitless effort on all accounts.

Mortal Kombat had become so much easier for Peter since he’d gotten his powers. What with his faster reflexes and heightened senses. 

_”Finish Him!”_ The announcer on the game boomed, and Peter hit the right sequence for the grossest finishing move they’d seen, all without looking up from the floor.

_”Scorpion wins! Fatality!”_

“How?!” Ned cried. 

Peter shrugged, “Do you think she meant it?”

Ned looked at him, “Do I think who meant what?”

“MJ. Do you think she meant what she said? About her crushing on me?”

Ned groaned, “You’re still on that? Dude, that was on Sunday. It is Wednesday, and she never mentioned it to you, and she knows you saw it.” He pulled a chip out of one of the bags in front of them, popping it into his mouth, “If she meant it, then she either thinks you’re gonna reject her, for some weird reason, or she thinks she’s dreaming or something. If she didn’t, then she knows you’re Spider-Man, and is waiting for you to tell her yourself.”

“You think so?”

“I don’t know, man. Girls are weird. MJ is even weirder. That’s why I’ve decided to remain single for the time being.” He crunched down on another chip, a self-satisfied grin on his face.

Peter raised a brow at him, “Betty said no, didn’t she?”

“Oh yeah. Big time.” Ned replied, not missing a beat.

“Yikes. Sorry, man.”

Ned shrugged, “Meh. It’s whatever. Anyway, we’re not talking about my depressing love life. We’re talking about your even more depressing love life.”

“Hey! It’s not _that_ depressing.”

“Dude. Your last ‘date’ was with Liz. You ogled her for close to a year because you were incapable of saying a complete sentence if she was within ten feet of you. Then by some miracle you finally asked her to homecoming, and found out that she liked you too. Great! So you went to homecoming together, where you then ditched her, and then proceeded to go fight her dad on the outside of Tony Stark’s invisible jet, which inadvertently caused her to have to move literally to the other side of the country.”

“That doesn’t make it depressing...”

“You’re right. It makes it a book series by Lemony Snicket.” Ned sighed, putting down his controller, “Dude, I don’t know if MJ has a crush on you or not, but instead of just sitting here wallowing, why don’t you actually go do something about it? Go talk to her. Give her a card back. Do something.”

Peter nodded at his words, then laughed lightly, “Since when did you become such a match-maker?”

“Nah. It’s not match making. It’s just common sense.” Ned told him, “That, and it’s easier to help with these sorta things when you’re not directly involved in them.” He picked his controller up again, “Okay. I want another rematch. Scorpion can not win against Sub-Zero every single time. I can leave without at least winning one match.”

Peter cracked his knuckles, focusing fully on the game for the first time that day, “You’re on, dude.”

_”Round One!”_

**”FIGHT!”**


	5. Even When He’s Not Around

_March_  
_MJ_

_”You have: one new message.”_ The droning sound of Michelle’s voicemail was like static to her. Too loud for its own good, but also not loud enough for her to pay complete attention, _”To play this message, press one.”_

She absentmindedly pressed the key, focused more on her sketchbook than what was going to come through the phone.

 _“Hey, MJ. It’s Peter.”_ Peter’s voice came through, and her heart slammed into overdrive. Why the hell did it do that? It’s Peter, not some celebrity. Sure, she’d take talking to Peter over a celebrity any day, but she was quite content living in denial of that at the moment.

Well.. half denial. She did get Spider-Man to deliver that card to Peter. But then she closed herself off about that, so half was probably more accurate.

 _”I uh... I wanted to talk to you about something. Something important...”_ He sounded gravelly, like he’d just woken up, and then decided to call her, _”... But I’m, like, mostly asleep, so bear with me.”_

Michelle’s attention had abandoned her sketchbook, though her hand was still drawing on its own. It wouldn’t be recognizable as anything, but that was really the last of her priorities.

 _”I think... I think that you were embarrassed by the whole Valentine’s Day card thing, which is funny in itself, because you don’t get embarrassed by anything...”_ She heard him snicker, and rolled her eyes at the dork’s message, _”But, anyway... If you, uh... if you wanna forget that it happened, I’ll do that for you.”_

Michelle didn’t know what to think. Was she going to forget the whole encounter? The whole thing with getting Spider-Man to take time out of his probably very busy day to deliver it for her?

Peter’s voice yanked her out of her thoughts, _“But I’m not giving back the card... I’m keeping that... it’s adorable.”_

She squinted at the phone. Even though it was a recording, and Peter couldn’t see her, she hoped he flinched regardless.

 _”I gotta tell you something though...”_ Peter’s voice was getting quieter, and she suspected that he was very close to falling asleep, _”I wanted to tell you for a long time... that I... I’m... I’m Sp-”_

His confession was cut off by the end of the message, leaving Michelle staring at her phone, hoping the message would continue from her simply willing it so.

She sighed through her nose, “Typical...” she muttered, the words trailing out into a yawn.

Michelle looked at her clock, seeing that it was far later than she should’ve been awake in the first place. So she clicked off her lamp, closed her sketchbook, and flopped down on her bed face-first. A groan left her as she scolded herself for being so “not-obsessed” with Peter Parker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Couple of short chapters on account of me working on a bigger addition. 
> 
> More to come soon.
> 
> Thanks for reading :)


	6. Code Holmes

_March_  
~~Peter~~ _Ned_

_”What kind of flowers do you think I should get? Should I even get flowers? Does MJ even like flowers?”_

Ned sat at his desk, assuming his position as Peter’s “guy in the chair”. And it was boring.

Most of the time it was fun, the two of them would think of quips together, Ned could get live feeds from security cameras to help Peter in his fights. It was great.

But now, Peter was basically fighting on autopilot while his mind obsessed over every little detail about his upcoming date with MJ.

Yes. Peter had a date with MJ.

Of course, things never, ever went as planned, and MJ may or may not have even been aware that it was a date. All she knew was that Ned, Peter and her were all going to go to a movie together, and then Ned was supposed to “conveniently” not be able to make it and voilà. A Parker-Jones date.

“Peter, if you get her flowers, she’ll probably know that you planned me to not be there the entire time. And telling her that was only in the plan if the thing goes well. Remember?”

_”Right. Right. I knew that.”_

Ned nodded despite Peter being unable to see him, muttering to himself, “Not that there’s any doubt it’ll go well. You two are crazy for each other, just blind and oblivious to it as two people can be.”

_”What’d you say? I didn’t catch that.”_

“Nothing, man. Just talking to myself.” He grabbed at his now empty bottle of soda beside him, sliding his chair backwards to get up, “Brb, man. Gotta get a refill. Don’t go webbing anyone to any street lamps while I’m gone.”

 _”No promises.”_ Peter answered, laughing.

Ned walked out of his base of operations, which was really just an old storage room at the end of the hall in Peter’s apartment, and made his way to the kitchen. There he found May, sitting on the couch eating Thai food and watching reruns of some old courtroom show.

“Hey, Ned. How’s Peter’s spider business?” She asked, pulling her eyes away from the screen, “You keeping him outta trouble?”

Ned sighed, “I think trouble is his chosen career path. That or giving me headaches”

May laughed, “Aw. He giving you a hard time?”

Ned shook his head, “No. He just won’t shut up about his date.”

May smiled, “Ah. Yeah, he’s been talking about that a lot since it happened. But, to be fair, he talked a lot about her even before he asked her out.”

“Peter asked someone out?”

Ned swore he basically learned to fly with how high he jumped. MJ’s voice came from the front door to the Parker’s apartment, and both Ned and May yelped when she made herself known.

“Michelle! Hi! What brings you by?” May stammered. It was very clear where Peter got his ability to over-talk when he was nervous.

MJ gave them both a confused look, “I told both Peter and Ned that I’d be over today to help them study.”

Ned nodded, “Yeah, but you said that you’d be here at 5.”

MJ pulled her phone out, showing Ned the time on the screen.

_5:02_

_’Shit.’_ Ned thought. How had he not noticed the time?

“Sorry I’m late. I wanted to get some snacks. I’ve found that the two of them focus better when they’re eating.” She said as she put the phone away, “Peter asked someone out?”

_’Double shit.’_

“Uh... no. No, he didn’t.” Ned tried to misdirect her. He knew it was impossible once she got focused on a topic or wanted an answer.

“I very clearly heard May say that he’d asked someone out. And that he’d talked about her a lot before he even asked.” She scratched the side of her head, “Is Liz back in town?”

Ned was slowly side-stepping try and get back to his station and tell Peter to get his ass back home on the double, “Uh, no. She’s not. She’s still on the other side of the country...”

MJ furrowed her brow, “Hmmmm... I’ll ask Peter myself then.” She said simply, marching towards the hall to try and get to Peter’s room.

Ned blocked her path, “Uh, No!” She stared at him like he was crazy, “No, Peter is um... he’s naked... very, very naked.”

“Oookay... Ned’s being weird again. Must be a day that ends with ‘Y’.” she said to herself as she turned around and went to sit on the couch beside May, “Just get him out here quick, Leeds. I don’t have all night to help you guys.”

Ned nodded, then ran to his station, urgently speaking to Peter, “Code ‘Holmes’. Code ‘Holmes’!”

Peter yelped, _”Jeez-us, Ned! I nearly fell off this roof.”_ less than a second passed before he registered what Ned had told him, _”Oh SHIT! I’m on my way! Stall her. Keep her distracted. Just five minutes!”_

“Move your ass, dude. Five minutes is a lot to ask with MJ.”

Ned shut down the computer and covered it all in a couple old blankets. Then he rushed to Peter’s room, opening the window as per their protocol.

It was so cool that they had a protocol.

He then walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.

He went back out into the living room, MJ looking at him expectantly, “Well, Ned? Where is he?”

Ned gave her a thumbs up, “He’ll be out soon. Five minutes.” He told her, hoping that Peter could actually make it there in five minutes.

MJ made a sound as she nodded, then patted the cushion of the chair beside the couch, “Alright. C’mere Leeds. You have a biology test on Monday, and you have a 87% in the class. That’s your lowest mark, so that’s what we’re working on.”

Ned groaned, but took the spot in the chair anyway. He hated biology, but if it kept MJ from going and trying to see Peter, then he’d suck it up.

But Peter owed him big time for this one.

A short time later, the sound of something hitting the wall came from Peter’s room, and MJ, Ned and May all looked in the direction of the sound.

Ned stood up quickly, “Uh... I’m gonna go make sure he’s alright.”

MJ stood up as well, marching past Ned towards Peter’s room, “I’m gonna drag him out here by his ear.”

Ned went into semi-panic mode, following just behind her while trying to come up with something that would make her stop.

She turned the handle on Peter’s bedroom door and flung it open.

Peter was in his underwear, searching through his backpack furiously for something.

“Uh... Peter?” MJ made herself known As she looked at the ceiling, a small amount of red appearing on her cheeks. Peter looked back at her. In one quick motion he grabbed the blanket off his bed and covered himself with it.

“Hi, MJ. Good to see you. I’m trying to find my Chemistry textbook, but I can’t see it in my bag.”

She shook her head, still staring upwards, “You can use mine. Just get dressed and get out here.”

Then she walked out of the room back to the living room, leaving Ned and Peter.

“Dude!” Peter whisper-yelled, “I said five minutes.”

“Yeah, and I told you that five minutes was not going to last that long cause it’s MJ. She only came down here cause something, I’m gonna assume you, hit the wall.”

Peter scratched the back of his head, “Oh... yeah. That was me. Whoops.”

Ned rolled his eyes, walking out of the room again, “C’mon, man. She’s already suspicious.”

Ten minutes later Peter was out in the living room with everyone else. May had shifted to the other chair so that Peter could sit down on the couch beside MJ.

Ned has to stop himself from hitting his head against the table. Both of them were so obviously into each other, how did they not see that?

The little glances both of them did when the other wasn’t looking.

The way Peter smiled whenever she spoke, even when she was making fun of him.

Or the way MJ nervously tucked her hair behind her ears every ten seconds.

Ned could practically feel the tension between them, and he was fairly certain that if Peter had just asked MJ out from the beginning, without the whole ruse of Ned joining them, she would’ve said yes in a heartbeat.

“So, Peter... I heard that you asked someone out?” MJ asked out of the blue. Ned shut his eyes in regret for a second. He’d hoped that she’d forgotten about that.

Peter, who had been snacking on licorice, froze while holding the candy just out of reach of his mouth.

Ned could tell that he was panicking, and that he was probably going to try and offer an excuse or try and exit the conversation, all in his signature Peter Parker way of rambling at an increasing pace until it became incoherent and nobody was able to understand it.

“Um... yeah. Yeah, I did.” He said, completely taking Ned by surprise, “Yeah. I asked this girl out. She’s really great. I’ve known her for a while, and I’d always felt this thing in the back of my mind, y’know? That weird feeling that you don’t quite know what it is?”

MJ looked down at her notes, a small frown on her face, “Oh...”

Peter obviously didn’t notice her change in mood, or that she’d started to pack up her things until she’d zipped up her bag and slung it over her shoulder.

“I think you guys are good as far as your studies go. Just make sure you review before the class and you should do fine.” She told them, tucking her hair back again, “I’ll see you guys on Monday.” Then she was gone before they could say anything.

May was right at the door as she left, grabbing Peter’s jacket and tossing it to him, “You need to follow her. Cause if you don’t, she’s not going to that movie.”

Peter’s eyes widened, putting on his coat and sliding into his shoes as he raced down the hall after MJ. Ned hoped he was able to get to her in time.

————————————————————————  
_Peter_

MJ had a good head start on Peter, but thankfully he was faster than her.

_’Thank you, super powers.’_

He took the stairs to try and get to the lobby before the elevator reached it. 

Well, he took the stairwell. He really didn’t use any of the steps, launching off walls and swinging from railings.

As he reached the lobby he rushed out the door to the stairwell, careful not to take it off its hinges, and he saw MJ just as she was walking out the door.

“MJ!” He called as he chased after her, “MJ, wait!”

She didn’t stop, nor did she turn to look at him, “Leave me alone.”

“MJ, it’s not what you think. I think you’ll actually find it kinda funny once you hear it.”

She whirled on him, “Really? Cause it sounds like you asked someone out. Someone who’s ‘great’ and who you’ve ‘known for a while’. Even after I gave you that stupid, stupid card. Sounds real hilarious, Parker.”

“MJ.”

“No! No, I don’t want to hear any excuses. Honestly, I don’t care what you do. Just leave me the hell out of it.”

“MJ, I-“

“Shut up, Parker! I said I don’t want to fucking hear it!” She glared at him as she yelled. She turned and started to walk away, but pivoted and marched back up to him, fury still in her eyes, “And y’know what? You can count me out of that movie with you and Ned. Why don’t you invite your ‘date’ instead, huh?“

With that, she stormed off, leaving Peter alone in the half-melted snow of the sidewalk. He watched her as she walked away, up until she turned a corner and disappeared from his sight.

“I already had...” He said sadly, slowly turning and walking back towards his building.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah... this one hurt my heart to write.  
> More updates coming soon... probably.


	7. Enter Sandman

_April_  
_MJ_

Spring was a weird time for MJ.

Her hair wasn’t in its usual semi-poofy state, thanks to the added humidity from climate change fucking up the ozone layer, and had gained a substantial amount more poof than normal.

At the same time, she was starting to not be able to wear her usual darker colors that she preferred, lest she overheat herself and have to end up carrying her would-be increasingly sweaty carcass up her stairs to her apartment after walking home from school.

On top of all of that, she was caught smack-dab in the middle of the post-pubescent hormonal rage that had swept the majority of her school by storm with the higher temperatures. She, of course, knew that hormonal peaks during the spring were more often found in wildlife rather than the human population of New York, but that didn’t seem to stop everyone from acting really stupid all the time.

So now, instead of staying in school for her last period, which was a free space, she was wandering around through Midtown, scrolling through her social media and sipping on a smoothie that probably was a few dollars overpriced.

 _’Red carpet show. Dress. Dress. Inspirational quote. Dress. Ooh, nice suit. Go, Riri.’_ Her internal narration went on as she walked, _’Cindy got a new dog. Flash is... ugh, being Flash. Engagement, Throwback Thursday-...’_

Her thumb paused over a new post from Ned. It was him and Peter posing in front of their latest LEGO marvel: a custom built, life-sized statue of Iron Man.

She swiped to the joining photo, and let out a small laugh at the sight of Ned holding the statue’s head, a rather guilty look on his face as Peter was mid-freakout about the now destroyed fruits of their labors.

Scrolling down a smidge further, a smile crossed her face at Ned’s caption:

_”Oops...”_

She’d hardly spoken to Peter and Ned since their last encounter, over a month ago, which had gone less than ideally. Sure, she was still plenty annoyed at Peter for asking someone else out after she’d basically spilled her guts to him, but they were still her friends.

She missed them.

Her mindless scrolling was interrupted suddenly by her colliding with someone in front of her, jolting her out of her trance.

She looked up, finding a man looking up towards the tops of the buildings with a scared look on his face. She followed his gaze, and could very much understand his expression.

She’d somehow made it to Times Square in her distracted stroll. Also in Times Square: a thirty-foot tall man made of sand.

“Huh...” she made a surprised sound, “That’s something you don’t see everyday.”

The Sandman yelled in rage, and a wave of sand surged up from the opposite side of the square, tossing several cop cars into the air.

Michelle fumbled for her flip-phone in her pocket, pulling it out and hitting speed dial on the only number in the phone.

It rang twice as she put it up to her ear.

 _”Friendly-Neighborhood hotline, number one Web-Head speaking. Please state the nature of your crisis.”_ came the voice on the other end as they picked up.

“Giant man, made of sand, causing chaos in Times Square.” She said simply, her voice almost dry while she was trying to verify that what she was seeing was real.

 _”Ah...”_ Was the response. There was a short pause before, _“On my way. Thanks, Watson.”_

Michelle nodded, speaking in the same stunned tone, “Anytime.” Then she closed the phone.

The sentient mass of gravel roared as police opened fire, causing another wave to hit. A police van was thrown into the air towards Michelle, and she froze. Her legs wouldn’t respond to her brain screaming to run as the vehicle came down at her.

“Incoming!” A voice freed her from her paralyzed state, and a second later she was swept off her feet by the one and only Spider-Man as he swung by, the van only just missing the both of them.

Michelle clutched her savior tightly as he swung her to safety. She spoke fast, her brain only just catching up to her eyes and realizing what the hell was going on, “Hey, Spidey. Long time, no see.”

Spider-Man let out more webbing to lower them to the ground, “Yeah. It’s been a minute.”

He set her down behind an overturned car, “Are you okay?”

She nodded quickly, swallowing down a nervous laugh before answering, “Yeah. I think so.”

He nodded, “Good. Stay here for now. When you see a chance, make a break for it, understand?”

Michelle had focused on the colossal sand thing, which seemed to be growing bigger with each passing minute.

Spider-Man grabbed her by her shoulders, “Watson, you hear me?”

“Yes!” She yelped, “Yeah, I got it. I get the chance, run like hell.”

He nodded, then fired two lines at a rooftop and slingshot himself up to it.

Michelle peaked around the car, seeing the web-slinger trying to fight the monster, but he was having about as much success as one would expect fighting sand.

She could hear some of the quips he was shooting as he vaulted and swung around the square, her favorite being, “Y’know, I definitely prefer you as a good guy! Why can’t you go back to guarding nature and childhood wonder with Santa and the Easter Bunny?!”

Then the Sandman punched Spider-Man out of the air, sending him almost through a light up billboard.

Michelle’s mind poured over ideas. Anything that could potentially help out the wall-crawler before he ended up getting his ass kicked by a living beach.

After dismissing a few ideas, she had a thought. She looked at her smoothie, and she swore she would’ve had a lightbulb above her head if it were possible.

She redialed Spider-Man as she ran to a better vantage point.

_”Watson, I seriously hope you got somewhere safe before you called me.”_

“Sure. Let’s say that.”

 _”Great. Second point, this really isn’t a good time to chat. I’m kind of- Oof”_ She watched him get sucker punched to the ground, _”I’m kinda in the middle of something rather important here, remember?”_

“You need water.” She told him.

_”What?”_

“Water. Sand is a solid that acts like a liquid. It flows, it can separate and be blown around wildly, so you won’t be able to land any hits while it’s dry.”

Spider-Man launched himself at his foe, and as if to illustrate her point, the Sandman separated so that Spidey flew straight through him and he remained unharmed.

_”Yep. I noticed that.”_

“Exactly. But if you get it wet-...”

 _”It’ll be too solid to separate.”_ He realized. He tried to speak in an English accent, which was obviously terrible, _“By God, Watson, that’s genius!”_

Michelle grinned proudly, “I know.”

_”Okay. I’ll try and find a fire hydrant or something. I’ll let you know how it goes.”_

She didn’t get a chance to respond before he hung up, so she started looking for a hydrant herself as Spider-Man continued to get his ass kicked.

When she spotted one, the hero in question smacked into the ground in front of her, groaning as he tried to shake off the hit.

The Sandman towered above them, reaching with one giant hand to grab them both, so Michelle acted fast.

She grabbed Spider-Man by his wrist, aiming at the hydrant and pressing the trigger in his palm.

The web line hit dead on, and she got up onto Spidey’s face and shouted, “PULL!”

He did, and she had a split second where the thought of _‘God, I really hope this works.’_ flashed through her mind.

Spider-Man ripped the hydrant from the ground, spewing water everywhere, including at the Sandman.

Just as she’d predicted, the villain (She was pretty sure it was safe to call him a villain at this point) solidified from the water. As an added bonus, the weight of that much sand in such a large and unconventional shape caused it to be unstable.

The giant man crumbled down as he soaked it in, falling until what remained was a normal looking guy, standing in the middle of the square in a green shirt and khakis.

_‘He’s like the world’s worst Statefarm agent...’_

Spider-Man jumped to his feet, swinging over to the guy and landing one last kick to make sure the incident didn’t repeat itself.

Then cheers. Shouting and running and news crews and a whole army of people rushed Spider-Man in a much more positive way.

Michelle’s view of him disappeared fast, but before it did, he caught sight of her and held up a thumbs-up to her.

She smiled, putting a thought in the back of her mind to call him later for a one-on-one about this incident. For now though, she put her headphones back in her ears, threw her now sand-filled smoothie in a recycle bin, and started on her way home. She had questions to come up with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve undergone a bit of rebranding as you can see. You can now find me on IG:  
> @The_Heroes_Time_Forgot  
> Follow me on there and you’ll be kept up to date on anything that I post. :)
> 
> Thanks for reading, and enjoy!


	8. To Tell, or Not to Tell

_April_  
_Peter_

“Pizza’s on its way. It’ll be here in thirty.” Peter and Ned turned around as May came out from down the hall. She stopped as she stepped into the living room, giving her nephew a semi-unimpressed look, “And I expect you to be off the ceiling when it gets here.”

He grinned and nodded, having Ned tap him on the shoulder to bring his attention back, “Okay, dude. Keep going. What happened next?”

“Well, the thing was huge. Like, it almost took up the whole square, but I couldn’t land a hit. It wasn’t doing anything, and I was getting tossed around all over the place.” He held a hand towards May to stop the scolding look he already knew was coming, “I had it completely under control though.” He turned back, “And Then MJ called. She said I needed water to make it solid so I could hit it. So I tried to look for a hydrant, but kinda got backhanded into the pavement before I could find one...”

That time he earned the look from May.

“But, MJ saved my butt. She used my webshooter to stick the hydrant she found and just yelled at me, ‘Pull!’. So I did.”

“And?” May asked, making a motion to say more.

“It worked. The Sandman fell apart from the water, and it was just this guy in the middle of the square. He kinda looked like if Steve from Blue’s Clues became a criminal.”

Ned grinned, holding his hand up to his upside down best friend, “Dude, nice. Up top.”

_clap_

May tapped her fingers on the counter, “Great job, hon. But what about MJ? You guys gonna bury the hatchet?”

Peter looked down... Or up... whatever it was. He looked at his feet, “I dunno, May. She was pretty mad last time she saw us.”

May pointed to him, “You’re meeting with her on Sunday, aren’t you?”

Both he and Ned shook their heads, Ned clarifying, “She’s meeting _Spider-Man_ on Sunday.”

“But... He _is_ Spider-Man?”

“She doesn’t know that.”

May raised a brow, “And you’re just gonna keep it that way?”

Peter shrugged, “Well, yeah. It’s dangerous to know who Spider-Man is. You two are already in enough danger, I don’t want to put her through that too.”

May sighed and shook her head, “Peter Benjamin Parker, you come here right now.” Peter did as he was told, and May made a spiraling motion in the air, “Off the ceiling.”

He unstuck himself so that he held on by one hand, then dropped the last few inches to the ground. May put one hand under her chin, using the other to help her get her point across, “Now, I know next to nothing about all this superhero business. It’s all weird to me, so when you need help with that, you’re probably gonna want to go see Tony Stark and have him help you with that.”

Peter tilted his head, a confused look on his face, “Uhhhh... okay?”

May wasn’t done, “What I do know, however, is regular, everyday people stuff. Relationships being one of them. Now, you like MJ, right?”

Peter’s face reddened a few shades as he nodded. Of course May and Ned both already knew about him liking MJ, but it was still strange to just talk about out loud.

May pointed to him, “Well, you don’t start a new relationship with secrets from each other. And you being Spider-Man is a pretty big secret. You gotta tell her, Peter.”

Peter shrugged with a somewhat guilty look on his face, “It’s not that simple, May.”

“Why not?”

He ran one hand through his hair and blew a breath out his nose, “Because Spider-Man already knows that she’s crushing on Peter Parker, but she doesn’t know that Peter Parker _is_ Spider-Man. And Spider-Man has been trying to help her get together with Peter Parker. So what happens when she finds out that Spider-Man has been Peter Parker the entire time? She’ll hate him, I mean me.”

May blinked as she tried to process what he’d just said, her eyes moving as if she were reading the words in the air. She sighed, “You and Ben. You’re the only people who’ve ever been able to confuse the hell outta me by talking circles around yourselves.” She shook her head, “Peter, she’s going to find out eventually, and more likely than not there’s going to be a fight. But that’s no reason to just forgo telling her entirely. That’ll just make it that much worse when she does find out.”

”Yeah. She’s crazy good at deductions, remember?” Ned spoke up, “She was able to tell not only that Flash got rejected, but who he got rejected by, when it happened, and how badly, just from him walking into the cafeteria.” He looked off into the distance, “Watching her take him down a notch was like a religious experience.”

Peter nodded with a grin, “That was pretty sweet, wasn’t it?”

May reached across the counter and lightly smacked her nephew’s arm, “Peter, focus.”

“Right, sorry...” he shook himself, trying to reset himself in the conversation, “I just... I feel like if I tell her, thing could go really, really badly.”

May shrugged, “Well if you don’t, they could get a whole lot worse.”

_knockknockknock_

“Oh, wow. Those thirty minutes passed fast, didn’t they?” May said, grabbing her purse as she walked over and answered the door.

Peter leaned against the counter, thinking about what she’d said. Maybe it was better if MJ knew about his double life... it’d certainly make him feel better not having to lie to her about where he was going when duty called.

Ned’s voice snapped him out of his thoughts as his friend pulled a large slice of pepperoni out of one of the three boxes, “I think that’s enough about responsibility and all that for one night, I have a question about the Sandman. Or, I have a few.”

Peter smiled. Ned was right. He could worry about that whole thing later, “Okay, man. Shoot.”

Ned held up one finger, “Question numero uno: Are we actually calling this guy ‘Sandman’ now? Or is that just like a description title, and you want me to come up with something better?”

Peter grabbed a slice, answering quickly before taking a bite, “I think ‘Sandman’ works pretty well. There’s only so many things you can be called with powers like that.”

Ned nodded, “Good call. I’m not sure I could think of something that’d work as well.” He finished his slice, “Second question, and this is more of just a general judgement than anything else: you fought against a guy called Sandman, and you didn’t have Karen hack into any of the PA systems or anything and play Metallica?”

Peter grinned, “Bold of you to think I didn’t have it playing in my mask.”

Ned laughed and put his hand up again.

_clap_

The night went on much the same way. Laughing and smiling and joking about the fight. All the while Peter’s worries about MJ were in the back of his mind, unnoticed, but certainly not forgotten.

He’d figure out what he was going to do in the next couple days... hopefully.


	9. Trying for Trust

_May_  
_Peter_

“Karen, are you one hundred percent sure that there’s no crime that needs to be taken care of?” Peter asked his AI as he perched on the edge of a building, “Not even like a convenience store hold up? Or a purse snatcher?”

 _”No crimes have been reported since you last asked, which was two minutes ago.”_ Karen answered, _”You seem uneasy, Peter. Is it because you’re supposed to be on your way to go see Miss Jones?”_

“Whaaaaaaaaaaaaat?” Peter asked, trying (and failing) to act nonchalant, “What gave you that idea?”

_”You’ve asked me to update you on any crime fourteen times since we left your apartment ten minutes ago.”_

Peter grimaced, “Okay, you might be onto something.” He sighed, repositioning himself so he sat with his legs hanging over the edge, “I dunno, Karen. May says that I need to tell MJ about me being Spider-Man, but I don’t know if I can go through with it.”

_”Because revealing your secret identity to her could put her in mortal danger from anyone who wishes to find you and end your life by any means necessary, including ending her’s as well?”_

Peter blinked, “Yeah, that reasoning sounds a lot better than mine.”

_”Which was?”_

“She’ll be really mad at me.”

 _”Hm.”_ Karen made a sound like she was thinking, _”I think I may have a solution.”_

“I’m not activating ‘Instant-kill’, and going after all of my greatest foes.”

Karen was silent for a few moments, _”I no longer have a solution.”_

Peter nodded, “That’s comforting.” He got to his feet, seeing MJ walk out onto her building’s rooftop, “Well, here goes nothing.”

Then he front-flipped off the edge, falling for a few seconds before extending his arms to his sides and activating his gliding webs.

He dove towards the rooftop, deactivating the extra portion of his suit as He got close enough, and firing a web to zip-line to the roof.

He landed near silently in a crouch on top of a ventilation port, “Hey, Watson.”

MJ didn’t even bat an eye, or look up from her notebook, “Sup, Web-head. How ya feeling after being tossed around by gravel?”

Peter rubbed the back of his head, “Meh, I’ve been hit harder.”

She shrugged, “Touché.”

”I will tell you one thing, though.” He started, jumping down from the port, “Getting all the sand out of this suit was a nightmare.”

“I imagine so.” She said, still not looking up from her notebook. She seemed particularly fixated on whatever she’d written on the page.

Peter connected two webs between a lamppost and the corner of the doorway to the roof, spreading them out to make himself a hammock. He jumped and laid in it, taking up a position as if he were at a therapy session, “Lets get this show on the road, shall we?” 

MJ clicked her pen and nodded, “We shall.”

——————————

Two hours later, Peter was almost bored out of his mind, and talking about Sandman for the whole time did not help much.

He’d somehow ended upside down and hanging from a web by his feet as MJ looked over the answers he’d given her.

“One last question, and this one is more just in general, rather than about Sandman.” She said as she flipped to a fresh page, “with how much you’ve helped this city, how is it that you haven’t been offered a spot on the Avengers?”

“Oh, I have. I just turned it down.”

MJ blinked, “You did what?”

“I turned down the offer. Iron Man offered it to me after the whole fiasco with the plane crash at Coney Island.” Peter explained, “It just wasn’t the right move for me, personally.”

MJ quickly wrote that down, “Okay, we’re gonna talk more about that next time I see you. For now though, I think that’s everything I wanted to ask.” She told him as she closed her book and stood up, “As always, thank you for your time. Now go be a hero.”

Peter dropped from his web as she started to walk away, “Actually, there’s one other thing.”

MJ looked at him, “Uh, okay? What’s up?”

_’This is it, Peter. You can do this. She may kill you, but that’s a minor detail.’_

Peter was quiet for a second as he tried to find the words, “Uh... well, you’ve trusted me with your own personal stuff in the past.”

MJ nodded, “Once, with a card, but go on.”

He scratched the back of him head, “Heh. Well, I wanted to return the favour... sorta.”

MJ shrugged, “I mean, actions speak louder than words, Spider-Man.”

Peter nodded, “You’re right.” Then without waiting for another response, he started to pull at the top of his mask.

Only up to his mouth had been uncovered when he felt MJ’s hands on his own, “Whoa. What the hell are you doing?”

“Uh... taking my mask off? Showing you that I trust you with my secret?” He answered, unable to see because of how far he’d pulled it up.

MJ kept her hand over his, “Uh-uh. You are not doing that. Put you mask back on properly.” Peter did, blinking to recalibrate the lenses. MJ ran a hand through her hair, “While I appreciate the sentiment, I really don’t think this is the best idea. Did you think about this? I mean really think about it?”

“An overwhelming amount of thought was put into this, yeah.” He answered.

“Clearly nowhere near enough.” MJ sighed, “Thank you for trusting me that much. I’m not sure it’s the best idea, but thank you. Now, let’s just leave it with that you trust me, and that’s all, yeah?.”

Peter nodded, “Yeah. Yeah that makes sense... I guess I’ll, uh... I’ll see you next week.”

“Yeah... see you then.”

“Bye.” Peter said as he shot a web at the corner of her roof, launching himself at it and promptly off of it before continuing to swing down the street.

“Well, Karen. You happy? I tried, and she stopped me.”

_”I’m not sure why that would make me happy, Peter?”_

“I meant... never mind. Anything I need to take care of?”

_”Nothing to repo- wait, there’s a robbery happening at a bodega. Two blocks west.”_

“Good.” Peter said as he swung around a corner to go west, “I need to clear my head.”


	10. Long Time Coming

_May_  
_MJ_

Michelle tried to swallow back her anxiety as she exited the elevator onto the floor of Peter’s apartment. She wiped her increasingly clammy hands on her new shirt, which she’d bought on the way there in an impulsive decision that she may or may not come to regret, depending on the results of her self-assigned mission.

 _’Okay, Michelle. You can do this. If Spider-Man can trust you enough to almost reveal his secret identity to you, then you can trust Peter with this.’_ She took a partially unsteady breath as she reached the door.

She held her hand up to knock, _’Well... here it goes.’_

_*KnockKnockKnock*_

The instant her hand left the door after the third knock, she felt an overwhelming amount of anxiety, _’Is it too late to back out now? How far is it elevator? How long before the doors would open? How long before Peter or May answer the door? Why did I buy this shirt?’_

She’d just about flipped the mental switch to book it when the door opened, and Peter was standing on the other side, “MJ?”

“Uh, hey... long time no see.” She tucked her hair behind her ears. So far so good. No awkward exchanges.

“Yeah.” Peter scratched the back of his head, “Yeah, its been a while... How, uh...h-how’ve you been?”

“Good... good... And yourself?”

“Yeah. Me too. I’ve been good too.”

They both stood looking at each other in silence, with every second that passed marking a new scenario playing out in her mind about how this plan could go wrong.

She all but cheered when Peter finally broke the silence, scratching his right ear, “So, you wanna come in? May’s out right now, but she should be back soon.”

Michelle nodded as she stepped inside, “Please.”

Peter closed the door behind her, walking past her and grabbing his backpack off the couch to clear a spot for her, “I, uh... I wasn’t sure you’d ever want to come back here again. Not after last time.”

“That is a fair assumption based off of our last encounter.” She agreed, taking a seat. She pushed her hair behind her ears, “But, I think I may have overreacted a bit. It was a valid reaction, don’t get me wrong, but I may have blown it a bit out of proportion.”

Peter squished two fingers together in an effort to agree, “Tiny bit.”

Michelle laughed, “You don’t get to agree with me on that, because you’re the one who caused it.” She wiped her hands on her pants once more, “But I didn’t come here to talk about that. Well, something relevant to that, but not that specifically.” She stopped herself before a tangent started.

Peter leaned forward, waiting for her to say what she’d come there to say. He was not at all aware of the flashing red lights and alarms blaring in her head, all of which were telling her that it was her last chance to back out.

She shook herself loose of her anxieties for a moment so she could speak, “I just think, that you should know that I kinda... maybe, sorta-“

“I like you too, MJ.”

And her heart stopped. 

She froze. Say what now? He liked her too? And she hadn’t even finished her sentence when he’d said it, _‘Did I make it that obvious? And where the hell did this self-confident version of Peter come from? Why isn’t he stumbling over his words on this? What is happening?’_

”Uhh...” Was all that came out of her mouth, and Peter covered his mouth to stifle a laugh.

When her brain continued to prove unreliable, Peter took over, scratching at his right ear, “I’ve known for a while, since you blew up at me. And I still maintain that that was a misunderstanding.”

Michelle shook her head to reset herself, “I’m tempted to argue with you on that, but I won’t be so unreasonable not to hear your side. Go on.”

“It was you.”

She looked at him expectantly, “What was me?”

“The date, MJ. I’d been talking about you.” He clarified, “You started asking me about it, and I thought it’d be a good way to tell you.” He blew out a sigh, “Boy, I was wrong.”

Michelle’s mind reeled back, remembering what he’d said that day.

_“She’s really great. I’ve known her for a while, and I’d always felt this thing in the back of my mind, y’know? That weird feeling that you don’t quite know what it is?”_

She closed her eyes tight in regret, _’Oh, I have never hated my quick reactions more.’_ she opened her eyes and looked at him again, “I really should’ve let you finish talking that day, huh?”

He laughed and nodded, “Might’ve saved us both some grief.”

She sighed, her gaze falling to the table instead of looking back at his, “I’m sorry, Peter. I didn’t-“

“MJ. You don’t have to apologize for anything. I should’ve just been straightforward from the beginning and asked you out properly.” He shook his head, “In all honestly, we’re both at fault here.” He put his hand up to his right ear to scratch again, “But that doesn’t mean that we can’t still try. Does it?”

Michelle raised a teasing brow at him, an accompanying smirk playing on her lips, “Is that your version of asking me out, Peter Parker?”

His hand quickly went for his ear again, and Michelle made a mental note to get him a tin of anti-itch cream if something was bothering him that badly.

“Uh, I... I-I-I think I am.” Peter’s moderately confident demeanour suddenly vanished, “I mean I think so. Do you wanna, maybe... Uh...” His words failed him, amusing Michelle to no end. He made a motion that was anything but descriptive, which she took as him trying to act out the word ‘date’, then pointed to himself, “... With me?”

She smiled, stomping down the anxious voice in the back of her mind and trying to subtly wipe her hands, which had somehow gotten worse in terms of clamminess, on her pants, “Yeah. Yeah I think do wanna...” she made the same hand motion as he had, “... With you.”

Peter let out a nervous laugh, “Cool.”

Michelle mimicked the sound, “Cool.”

The two of them stared at each other for a few moments, neither one being sure what to do next.

Feeling her whirlwind of emotions beginning to set in, Michelle quickly got up, pointing to the door, “I should probably go. My mom is waiting for me and I said I wouldn’t be gone very long.”

Peter got up just as quick, “Yeah. Yeah, May will be home soon too, and then we’re going out for dinner.”

Michelle nodded, fast walking to the door, “Of course. And I wouldn’t want to impose-“

“And I wouldn’t want to make your mom worry.”

“Exactly.”

The stood in a stupidly unnecessary silence, just staring at each other before she offered him her hand, “I guess I will see you at school on Monday.”

Peter’s smile was ever-changing, faltering every couple seconds with what Michelle guessed was a mini anxiety attack each time. He shook her hand, “I guess so. Have a good weekend, MJ.”

She opened the door, “You too, uh...” She felt the strange need to call him some kind of nickname, like did for her, “Loser.”

Before he could say anything, she closed the door and speed walked back down the hallway to the elevator.

Only once she’d gotten in the elevator did she allow herself to react, wordlessly happy-dancing to the sound of the surprisingly upbeat elevator music. 

She had a date with Peter Parker.

Suddenly, she stopped dancing, staring wide-eyed at the still closed elevator doors, “I have a date with Peter Parker.” Her heart slammed into overdrive, “I have a date with Peter Parker.”

She repeated the words over and over again in her head, processing what they actually meant and the possibilities that they could hold.

She had a date with Peter Parker.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it’s been a minute since I revisited MJ and Peter. Sorry bout that.
> 
> I’m hoping that I can give you guys more updates not only on this, but on any others that I have going or I may start.
> 
> Also, I’ve been working on a little thing that’s somewhat like this one, but it involves Maria Hill and an OC. Would you guys be at all interested in something like that? Lemme know either in the comments or on IG @The_Heroes_Time_Forgot.
> 
> Thank you all for your patience, and I hope you enjoy.
> 
> Happy reading :)


	11. Parental Excitement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Out of the frying pan...

_May_  
_Peter_

The moment that the door closed behind MJ, Peter booked it for his room, quite literally jumping through the doorway, and startling Ned in the process, “Dude! What the heck happened?”

Ned shrugged, “I dunno man. It was working fine, and then all of a sudden it just shut off. I couldn’t get the program working again.”

Peter pulled the tiny communicator from his ear, looking it over to see if he’d damaged it somehow when he was messing with it. It looked completely fine. The exact same as it had when he’d put it in, “It’s fine, dude. But it scared the hell outta me. If Mister Stark finds out that I hacked and disassembled part of my suit again, he’ll take it for good this time.”

 _”Mister Parker.”_ The screen in front of Ned changed to show Tony Stark, and Ned screamed as it scared him worse than Peter had. Stark made a motion like he was clearing his ear from the loud sound, _”Mister Parker, it’s come to my attention that you, once again, took a part of your suit out.”_

Peter started to try and explain, “Mister Stark, I know it sounds bad, I if you just give me a minute to-“

The billionaire waved his hand to stop him, _“Kid, I know how important your whole spider-gig is to you, so you’re not gonna lose the suit. I made it for you. You earned it. You keep it.”_ Peter sighed in relief, but Stark wasn’t done, _”But, if you need a coms unit, just ask next time? That suit is a multi-million dollar project.”_

Peter nodded quickly, “Yes, Mister Stark. Won’t happen again.”

Stark smiled, nodding, _”Alright, Pete. Put the coms back in your mask, and I’ll send you one in the mail. It’ll be there tomorrow.”_ he reached to turn off the feed, but stopped a second before, _“Nice work on getting the date by the way, even if it was your buddy whispering in your ear. Congrats, kid.”_

The screen glitched for a second before coming back to Ned’s original screen, and the two boys looked at each other. Giant grins crossed both their faces, and they spoke at the same time.

“That. Was. AWESOME!”

“It was like he just knew!” Ned exclaimed, “Do you think he was listening the whole time you were talking to MJ?”

Peter blinked and paused for a moment, “God, I hope not, but he probably was.” He shook his head, “But, that was epic anyway. And, we got a free communication unit.”

“You got a free what now?” The two turned to the sound of May standing in the doorway.

Peter held up the little device in his hand, “Mister Stark is sending me one of these so I don’t take this one out of my suit anymore.”

May looked confused, “That’s what all the screaming was about?”

Ned shrugged, “Well, that and Peter has a date with MJ.”

May’s eyes widened, and she looked to her nephew, “A date? Like a ‘date’ date?” Peter nodded slowly, and May’s arms shot straight into the air, “WOO HOO!”

She rushed forward, tightly wrapping Peter in a hug, “Oh, Peter. I’m so proud of you.”

“Thanks, May.” He strained, somehow being crushed by his aunt despite his powers, “Getting a little hard to breathe though.”

“Oh, hush, Spider-Man. You’re fine.” She gave him one last squeeze before letting go, still holding him by his shoulders, “Now, MJ hasn’t got any super villain parents that’ll try to kill you, does she?”

Peter laughed, “No, May. You’ve met them.”

She shrugged, “Yeah, well, I met Mr. Toomes too. Didn’t expect him to wear giant metal wings in his free time.” She started back down the hall, “I picked up dinner, so come and get your larb. It’s extra larb-y.”


	12. Unplanned Interruption

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ... Into the fire

_June_  
_MJ_

Michelle wasn’t sure that Peter knew how to actually act on a first date.

Or how to plan one for that matter, seeing at it took three weeks before they actually had anything that resembled a date set up.

Three weeks of both of them panicking on the inside, and trying their best to be calm on the outside, all for their date to be a movie night on his couch while May was out with some of her girlfriends.

The movies were her choice, (His place, her pick), and she painstakingly swept through both his DVD collection and Netflix to find what she wanted. She settled on some weird Netflix original for the first one, knowing that they’d be able to laugh at it and point out every single informational error that came up.

Two hours later they’d somehow moved on to The Chronicles of Narnia and eaten three bags of popcorn, (Peter had eaten most of the popcorn, and Michelle had no idea where he was putting it all), and everything was going great.

Although, Peter seemed a little tense. Then again, so did Michelle. She chocked it up to first-date jitters and tried to focus on the movie more than the fact that Peter’s arm had been slowly moving across the top of the couch and had found its way around her shoulder. Or that she’d just about gotten to the point where her head was resting on his chest and she could practically hear his heartbeat along with the rhythmic sound of his brea-

_*KnockKnockKnock*_

Michelle shot straight up at the sound of someone knocking at the door, scaring the hell out of Peter and herself as she let out a short scream. Getting her breathing under control, she patted Peter’s shoulder before he could get up, “I’ll get it. I think I need some water after that anyhow.”

He shrugged, pausing the movie until she’d sat down again.

Michelle opened the door, “Whatever you’re selling, we aren’t buying it, so go awa- Liz?”

In front of her stood Liz Toomes. 

Peter’s... ex?

 _’Can you call someone who a person went to one high school dance with, and immediately ditched at said dance, an ex?’_ She asked herself as she was only able to come up with that thought amid the chaos of her mind.

Liz beamed, “MJ! Hi, how are you? It’s great to see you again.”

Michelle blinked, snapping out of her confusion, “Hi, Liz. I’m fine. What’re you doing here?”

“Well, I finished all my exams early, so I though, why not come back and see some of my friends?” She shrugged, “However, it looks like I got a couple of the addresses wrong in my phone. It’s been a while. I have this down as Peter’s address, not yours.”

 _’This is just getting better and better.’_ a sarcastic tone edged into her thoughts. She looked back at the couch, “Hey, loser. Someone’s here to see you.”

Peter had been staring at the movie paused on the screen without fail since she’d answered the door. His widened eyes focused solely on the screen, as if looking anywhere else would’ve meant certain doom.

Michelle snapped her fingers, “Peter, c’mere.”

Hesitantly, he got up from the couch and came towards the door, Michelle leaning to one side in an effort not to block the two, “Uh... H-hi. Hi, Liz.”

While Peter looked more panicked than usual, Liz didn’t even bat an at the awkward encounter, “Hi, Peter! How’ve you been?”

Peter gulped, his voice cracking as he spoke again, “Good... good, I’m-I’m good. Are... are you good?”

Liz nodded, “I’m doing great.” Finally she seemed to clue in on the fact that it was just Michelle and Peter there, “Um... am I interrupting something?”

Michelle nodded, while Peter shook his head.

“Yes.”  
“No.”

Michelle looked at Peter, and he immediately rectified his answer, “I mean, yes. We’re kinda in the middle of something here. Can we talk, like, tomorrow at some point? Catch up then?”

Liz grinned, “Of course. You guys have my number, right? Same one as when I left.”

Both of them nodded, and Liz did the same, “Great. Well, I’ll let you guys get back to your evening. See you tomorrow!”

Then she walked back down the hall towards the elevators, and Michelle closed the door, leaning her back against it and crossing her arms. She let out a sigh, _’Well, that certainly killed the mood.’_

She sat back beside Peter on the couch, missing the state they’d been in before their unplanned reunion.


	13. A (Very, Very) Bad Idea

_June_  
_Peter_

“And then she just left when it was over.” Peter ranted, the air rushing by him as he trapezed across New York, “No plan for another one. No conversation about what had happened. Not even a joke or her usual teasing. Nothing.”

_“This occurrence has clearly made you upset, Peter.”_ Karen said once he’d finished, _”But I’m not sure what I could do about it?”_

Peter shook his head, firing another web and hurtling through the air, “Nothing, Karen. I know you can’t do anything about it, I just needed to talk to someone about it who wasn’t going to call me an idiot... or at least imply it.”

_”Why would they have done that?”_

“Because...” He sighed, “Because I panicked a little bit. I started talking without thinking and I made plans with Liz for today, _in front of MJ_.”

_”That seems like it may have been a mistake.”_

“Yeah. It was.”

A few moments passed before Karen spoke up again, _“So, where are you going now?”_

Peter landed on the edge of a building, looking down at the small park in front of him, “To do what is probably a bad idea.”

_”If it’s a bad idea, then why ar-”_

“Because it’s too late to back out now.” Peter interrupted her, “Karen, call Liz.”

———————————————————————————  
_June_  
~~Peter~~ _Liz_

Liz looked at her watch again, then around at the park.

“Twelve-thirty, on the dot.” She sighed, “Surprise, surprise. He’s late.”

Some small part of her had to have hoped that Peter had changed even a little since she’d been gone, but this was Peter Parker she was talking about.

He was kinda set in his ways, for better or for worse.

_Bzzzzt_  
_Bzzzzt_  
_Bzzzzt_

She pulled out her phone as it vibrated in her pocket, seeing the goofy looking expression of a Peter Parker smile light up the screen.

The hit the answer button, rasing it to her ear, “If you’re calling to say that you’re running late, I already figured as much.”

She heard his nervous laugh on the other end, _”Heh, yeah. I’m actually not that far. I just need you to do something for me, if you’re alright with that?”_

Liz pursed her lips as she nodded to herself, “Sure. Need me to stand on the sidewalk so you can see me?”

_”Yes and no. Standing on the sidewalk? Yes. Doing it so I can see you? Not so much.”_

Liz let out a short giggle, walking a few feet forward so that she was standing out of the shade of the trees, “You’re cryptic as always, Peter. Alright, I’m in the middle of the sidewalk, blocking people who are now gonna have to go around me. Where are you?”

_”One last thing.”_

“Peter.”

_“I swear, this is the last thing and then I’m gonna be there. No lie.”_

She pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, “Fine. What else?”

_“I need you to hold your hand straight up in the air.”_

“What?”

_”Just trust me. Please?”_

She did, holding her hand up as if she were asking a question, “Okay, Peter. Where are you?”

_“Inbound. See you in a second.”_

“I better.” She said as she ended the call, still standing and holding her hand up, “The things I do for that boy.”

“Incoming!”

She looked up as a red hand grasped her arm, pulling her off her feet and into the air as he passed.

“Spider-Man!” She yelped as he lifted her up to hold onto her more, “What the hell!”

The wall-crawler was more focused on his swinging, which she was thankful for, “Gimme half a second, and I’ll explain.”

He sounded different than the time he’d saved her in DC. He’d had some weird accent then, but now he just sounded like a regular New Yorker.

Spider-Man landed on the roof of a taller building, putting her back on her feet once they were on the ground. Liz took a couple steps back, “Well, that was absolutely terrifying. Why did you do that?”

“Because there is something really important that you should know.”, Spider-Man said as he held up one finger, then he grasped the top of his mask, pulling it down and off to reveal...

“Peter?”

Peter Parker stood in front of her, a sheepish smile on his face, “Hey, Liz.”

“You’re Spider-Man?”

He nodded silently.

“And you have been the entire time?”

He nodded again.

Liz blinked as she slowly processed the information. Peter started to look a little panicked, “Look, Liz, I know how you might feel about Spider-Man after what happened with homecoming and then with your dad and I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for-“

“For what, Peter?” She asked, looking him in the eye, “What are you sorry for? For stopping my dad from doing something that would ruin his life far worse that it is now? For saving him when his tech nearly killed him? Even after he’d tried to kill you several times?” She shook her head, “Peter you’ve got nothing to apologize for. Not even for leaving me at the dance.” She shrugged slightly, “Although it would’ve been nice to have gotten a bit more of a heads up before you just bolted, but I don’t blame you, Peter.”

Peter must not have been expecting her response to be so positive, “Uh, hang on. Wait a minute... You’re not mad?”

Liz shook her head, “I’m not mad.”

Peter breathed a sigh of relief, sitting down against one of the vent ports, “Wow. That’s good to hear. I was kinda worried that you’d be trying to beat the crap outta me.”

She laughed, giving him a shrug, “I considered it.” She took a seat next to him, “So, how did this happen?”

Peter let out a small huff, smiling, “You would not believe me if I told you.”

She raised a brow, “Peter, I wouldn’t have believed that you were Spider-Man either, and yet...” she gestured to him in his suit, “So I’m pretty sure I can believe anything you throw at me.”

He considered this for a moment, then scratched the back of his head, “You remember that field trip we took in my freshman year? The one to the facility that was run by Oscorp?”

Liz nodded, “The one where they were doing genetic’s research? Yeah, why?”

“Well... I kinda, sorta got bit...”

“By a spider?”

Peter nodded, “That night I got sick. Like, really, really sick. I thought that I was gonna die from that stupid spider.” He shrugged, “But when I woke up the next morning, I felt fine. I felt better than fine. I felt fantastic. Next thing I knew I had these powers and...” He sighed, “And it was so amazing. I was so excited and I thought that I’d finally be able to help people...” Peter sniffed, looking at the gravel under him, “But I couldn’t help the one person I wanted to most...”

The sudden shift in Peter’s emotions surprised Liz, and she put a hand on his shoulder, “Was that when...”

She didn’t have to finish the sentence for him to nod. He took a breath, “Yeah. Yeah, it was.” He shook his head, wiping the tears that had started to form in the corners of his eyes, and taking a few more calming breaths, “Losing him... it’s what pushes me to be Spider-Man. To try and make sure that nobody else has to go through that helpless feeling that I had.”

Liz smiled, sitting back against the vent again, “Well, I, for one, think that you have done a great job at that. Not only have you made New York safer, but you saved our lives in DC too. I’d say that that’s the superhero equivalent of bonus points, Peter.”

He laughed, and she was glad to see the joy back in his face.

They sat in silence for a few moments before Liz asked, “So, was there a reason that MJ was at your apartment last night, with just you?”

Peter scratched the back of his head, “Uh... that may or may not have been a date...”

Liz’s eyes widened, and she covered her face, “Oh, dear lord. It was a date, and I just barged over in the middle of it, didn’t I?”

Peter smiled sympathetically, “If it makes you feel any better, I don’t think that MJ minded all that much.”

She looked at him, narrowing her eyes like he was crazy, “‘Didn’t mind’? Peter, if that same thing had happened, but it was one of MJ’s former crushes that showed up, wouldn’t you mind?”

“Why would one of MJ’s former crushes come looking for her at my apartment. That doesn’t make sense?”

“That’s not the point, Peter.” She rethought her question, “What was she like for the rest of the date? Was she the same way as before I showed up?”

Peter shrugged, “I think so? I mean, she wasn’t sitting as close to me as she was before, if that means anything?”

Liz shook her head and sighed, “She thinks you’re still crushing on me.” Peter blinked in confusion, and she tried to clarify, “You aren’t, right?”

He shook his head quickly, and she nodded, “Good. Cause even if I do forgive you for everything, you did still get my dad arrested and ditched me at the dance in front of everyone. That’s kind of a deal breaker, dontcha think?”

“Heh... yeah, that was my thoughts exactly.” He looked up at the edge of the roof, a thought suddenly crossing his mind, “Hey, what time is it now?”

Liz looked at her watch, “Quarter after one. Why?”

In an instant, he was up on his feet again, pulling his mask over his head, “Shit. I’m late for a meeting with MJ. I completely forgot.”

Liz gave him a confused look, “How do you just forget something like that?”

“I’m easily distracted.”

“That’s true.” She stood up from her seat as well, “Are you gonna go sweep her off her feet, like you did me?”

Peter shook his head, “No. She interviews Spider-Man almost every Sunday.”

“Why are you talking about yourself in third person?” Peter didn’t get a chance to answer before she figured it out, running her hand down her face and making a stressed out sound, “She doesn’t know you’re Spider-Man, does she?”

He shook his head, offering her his hand as his mask calibrated, “No, though not for lack of trying.” She gave him a confused look, and he elaborated, “She wouldn’t let me.”

She nodded, taking his hand, “Ah. Well, if you could just drop me off on the ground, that would be very much appreciated.”

He gave her a thumbs up, “That, I can do.” He pulled her closer to himself, wrapping one arm around her waist, “Hang on.”

He fired a web at a higher building before jumping off and swinging down towards the street below.

They landed close to the same spot he’d picked her up from. Liz took a step back once her feet were safely on solid ground again, “Wow. That was... amazing. And you get to do that every day?”

Peter-... No, Spider-Man nodded, “Yeah. It’s great.” She had no doubts her was grinning like an idiot. He made a motion towards her, “So, you’re good, right? Nothing else you need?”

Liz laughed a little at him needing to act like his alter-ego with her, “Yes, Spider-Man. I’m good. Go be a hero.”

He gave two thumbs up, then shot a web at a passing bus, and was promptly pulled off his feet and onto the roof of the vehicle.

As she gathered herself, and started down the sidewalk towards where she was staying, a thought crossed her mind, and she looked back in the direction that Peter had gone, _’Oh, Michelle. You are gonna have your hands full.’_


	14. Fairground Fiasco

_July_  
_Peter_

Peter was starting to think that Liz visiting for the summer wasn’t as bad as he originally would’ve believed.

She’d started hanging out with them more, (“them” meaning the decathlon team that she’d had to leave behind), and MJ didn’t seem to have an issue with her being there anymore.

So he saw that as an absolute win.

“Yo, dork-wad.” Peter snapped out of his thoughts as a piece of popcorn bounced off the side of his head, thrown by the only person who’d call him such a name. MJ was holding her popcorn with a grin on her face, being careful to keep it out of reach of him after the last time, “You done spacing out? Cause we’re gonna go walk on the boardwalk.”

Peter blinked, shaking himself out of any daydreams that remained, “Uh, yeah. Sorry. Just, got caught up in a thought.”

“I can see that. C’mon, let’s go.” She made a motion with her head, and started off to follow their group, who was only a few steps ahead.

They’d decided to take a trip for old times sake to Coney Island. It was Ned’s idea, actually. Their group was the usual: Peter, MJ, Liz, Ned, Betty, Cindy, Abraham-

“He probably just got caught up thinking about how much he wishes he were Spider-Man, eh, Penis-Parker?”

...and Flash.

MJ tilted her head at the less than sub-par insult, “Flash, who are you to say anything like that? You wear Spider-Man pajamas to bed.”

Flash’s face paled, “H-how do you know about that?”

She shrugged, “I didn’t until now.”

The group all laughed, and Flash’s face went red as he quieted down.

Peter beamed at MJ, who averted her eyes as a blush graced her cheeks. He liked being able to do that.

“So, what do you guys wanna do later?” Betty asked, turning around and walking backwards from where her and Ned were ahead, “Go back on the Ferris Wheel? Try one of those ‘Rainbow Grilled Cheese’ that we saw?”

Ned copied her new way of walking, turning to face the group, “Oh, Peter! Do you wanna go on the Cyclone? I heard someone threw up on it the other day!”

Peter looked at his friend, confused and somewhat concerned, “Someone throws up on it like, every second hour, Ned. And why would that help sell it to me anyway?”

Ned shrugged, taking a bite from his churro, “I dunno, man. High speed is fun, and so long as we don’t eat a lot before we go on, we should be fine, right? Besides, you’ve got that iron stomach of yours. You’d be fine no matter what.”

The ‘iron stomach’ he was referring to being a side effect of Peter’s powers.

Peter shrugged, “I mean, sure, dude. Why not live a little, right?”

“Because when you ‘live a little’, you more often than not end up hurting yourself.” MJ snickered, and Peter scratched the back of his head.

At that moment, Peter’s head started to feel funny. It was like someone was screaming in his head, but there weren’t any actual words. He felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, and he looked around like he was expecting something to happen.

_**Bzzt-BOOM**_

A short zapping sound came from the direction back towards the attractions, and was immediately followed by an explosion that burst into the sky for a second before becoming a pillar of smoke.

Peter’s heart caught in his throat. He only started moving when he felt Ned pushing on his shoulder, but at the same time whispering in his ear, “You gotta go! Now!”

Peter nodded, slipping his back off his shoulder and handing it to his friend. He made a split second check to make sure nobody was paying attention, and literally leaped into action.

He ran through the back of the carts and buildings, pulling off his clothes one by one until it was his suit that was left. He flicked his wrist as he cleared the buildings, and the nano-mesh that was his mask formed from his web-shooter, “Thank you, Mr. Stark.” He said aloud as he pulled it over his head. 

He fired a web at the The Thunderbolt Roller Coaster in front of him, slinging himself high Into the air, and deploying his glider webs, “Karen, what’s going on over there?”

 _”I don’t know.”_ The AI responded, _“Whatever it is, it seems to have come out of nowhere. Nobody’s reported anything yet.”_

He dove down once he’d gotten close enough to where the explosion happened, landing in a crouch before running to civilians nearby, “Is everybody okay? Is anyone hurt?”

One of them waved their hand, “We’re fine, Spider-Man. I think everyone was out of the way.”

“Any idea what caused this?”

“Some guy. He started glowing, and then boom. It was like a transformer blew up.”

Peter started looking around for the man they were talking about, “Okay, you guys get somewhere safe. I’ll handle this, okay?”

The civilian who’d been talking to him nodded, “Don’t have to tell me twice. Thanks, Spidey.” At that, they ran off. Peter turned around towards the destruction.

“Karen. Is there any surveillance footage from before the explosion?”

_”There were cameras. I can check the footage, but there’s no guarantee that the explosion left any intact.”_

“Check anyway. Let me know if you get a look at the guy.”

It only took a few seconds for Karen to get back to him, _”One camera’s feed was useable, and I got a couple frames of the culprit.”_

A smaller screen showed up on his HUD. It showed a bald guy standing in the middle of the recorded area. He was glowing bright yellow, and Peter could just see lightning bolts arcing off his body.”

“So, the guy’s a living taser?” Peter asked, “Great. Just how I wanted to spend my afterno-“

 _”PETER LOOK OUT!”_ Karen’s warning, paired with the tingly feeling in his head, gave him the split second of reaction time he needed to avoid looking like a warning poster for power-line safety.

The blast of electricity surged past him, connecting with a hotdog cart that promptly exploded.

Peter landed from the flip, seeing the guy from  
The footage walking out of a cloud of smoke. He was wearing a green, mechanical vest that had orange and yellow lights dotting it. The man had a sinister, evil grin on his face, “Spider-Man, huh? Wow, it really is quite an honor to meet you.”

From his tone, Peter had doubts that his words were anywhere near truthful, “Y’know, if you wanted to meet me, there’s a little kiosk at the mall that has those little spider-plushies. I do a signing thing there every second Thursday. Take a few pictures. Hang from the ceiling for a little bit.” He waved his arms at the destruction around him, “You didn’t need to go pull a Thor. People actually kinda hold a grudge on him for blowing out the Chrysler Building’s windows. You don’t want every New Yorker angry at you. Trust me.”

The man furrowed his brow, “Do... Do you always talk this much?”

Peter pointed at him, “I do actually. See, I have this belief that talking to people actually helps them just as much, if not more, as kicking them in the face.” He shrugged, “And, if talking doesn’t work to stop them, it can lull them into a false sense of security.”

The man looked confused, “What?”

_Thwip_

Web covered his mouth as Peter flicked his wrist, and he shrugged, “See what I mean?”

The man’s eyes started glowing yellow, and Peter took a step back, “Uh, sparky, you got a little thing going on with your eyes. You seen an ophthalmologist lately?”

The web across the man’s mouth burned away, and his entire body started to glow with the same yellow light.

Peter took a couple more steps back, “Uh, or maybe a radiologist?”

The man started to slowly float off the ground, rising until he was floating at least ten feet in the air.

Peter attached a web to the Ferris wheel, climbing up it to try and keep the man from getting the high ground, “Exorcist?”

The man glared, static arcing off his arms as he threw his hands out towards Peter, blasting the top of the Ferris wheel with electricity.

Peter just had time to move, swinging over to and landing on another high ride. He made a t-shape with his hands, “Whoa, hang on a second. Time out. Time oUT!”

_**BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT**_

Another blast came towards him, and another near miss resulted.

“Dude! You’ve got to give me a chance here! That’s how this whole thing works!” Peter called, finding himself closer to the ground than he would’ve liked under the current circumstances, “I haven’t even stretched yet, and electro-shock therapy is not a good way to loosen up before a fight.”

The man tilted his head, grinning, “Heh. I think I like the sound of that.”

“Sound of what?”

He didn’t answer, flying higher above the park, and spreading his arms out like some kind of divine being, “Hear me, New York City!”

Peter sighed, looking at his feet for a moment, “And he’s monologuing. Great.”

“I am lightning incarnate! I am power eternal! I am-“

_**CRA-KACK**_

Electrical energy burst from his fingertips, nearly covering the entirety of the visible sky as he shouted,  
_”ELECTRO!”_

Peter threw his hands into the air, “Great. Villain’s named himself. Now he’s gonna be a bigger problem, isn’t he?”

_”Most likely.”_

“Thanks, Karen.”

_”You’re welcome.”_

He looked up at his enemy, running overtop of rides and food-stands alike, “Hey! Electo! You forget about me?”

Electro’s gaze bored into him, and Peter gulped. He turned away, jumping and swinging around a pole, “Apparently not!”

He heard the zapping of Electro flying after him, but dared not look back. He did _not_ want to have to explain to May or MJ why he had electrical burns.

 _”Incoming call from-.”_ The contact photo he had for MJ came up on his HUD as Karen started to inform him, and he cut her off.

“MJ! Answer, it’s probably her telling me about the explosion.” He said, and quickly added, “just audio, Karen. No visual.”

_”Got it.”_

The phone icon came up on the very left of his vision, “Sexy-Spider Hotline. How may I direct your call?”

He’d hoped to hear her say something witty in return, but she sounded more panicked than anything else, _“Spider-Man! There’s something going on at the Coney Island fair. Something just blew up, and one of my friends got separated from us. I don’t know where he went!”_ Her tone told him that she was scared, which unsettled him even more.

“I’m already here, I’ve got Electro’s attention. Give it about ten minutes, then go look for your friend.” He told her, hoping that he could get the crazed man away from the park in time, “Don’t do anything stupid. If you can’t find him, don’t stick around. I find him for you.”

“You can’t run forever, Spider!” Electro’s angry shout came from behind Peter, but he was more focused on MJ’s state.

“Hey, Watson, listen to me, okay?” He tried to pull her attention, “Everything’s gonna be fine. Your friend just probably got separated, and is trying to find a way back to you, okay?”

 _“O-Okay...”_ She breathed, _“Okay.”_

Peter smiled, “There we go. Can’t have my favorite reporter having a breakdown in the middle of a story like this, can I?”

“HYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Electro’s shput came from behind him, and Peter glanced back just in time for him to avoid another blast.

“I’ll call you back, Watson.” He said, and ended the call, pulling himself higher into the air and facing Electro, “Is that the best you got?”

Electro stopped chasing for a moment, pulling back both hands before unleashing a torrent of electricity at him.

_**BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT**_

“Uh-oh.”

—————————————  
_~~Peter~~_ _MJ_

MJ stared down at her phone, the line having gone dead a second earlier.

“MJ, we have to go! Now!” Ned pushed her shoulder to get her back in motion, and her legs worked to do so.

Her mind though, wasn’t just on a different page. It wasn’t even in the same book.

Her eyes didn’t leave the phone screen, and the unmoving contact photo of Peter’s face in a goofy expression. The photo and name that didn’t match the conversation that she’d just had.

With Spider-Man.


End file.
